See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction\u2026Choose life!\u201d (Deuteronomy 30).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to a human is to be given exactly what he or she wants. In fact, this may at the heart of what is meant by \u201cHell\u201d. It is the curse of God turning away, and allowing the darkened soul to banish itself to a self-sought outer darkness. <\/p>\n
An unencumbered pursuit of transient pleasures yields devastating and self destructive results. The risks taken become ever higher and the rewards ever more elusive. Relationships are destroyed, with bonds of friendship and familial affection severed, often to be replaced by the human equivalent of parasites, or else by abject loneliness.<\/p>\n
This kind of curse is what happened to a West Virginia construction contractor named Jack Whittaker, who in 2002 had the misfortune to win the largest powerball payout to date. In the words of Misty, an employee of a strip club called \u201cThe Pink Pony\u201d:<\/p>\n
Over the months, the once-dapper Jack grew slovenly, Misty says: \u201cHe would come in a sloppy shirt, all wrinkled. His hat would be dirty. He\u2019d be unshaven.\u201d And he became demanding. \u201cAt first he was, like: \u2018I\u2019m Jack Whittaker. I won all this money, yay for me,'\u201d Misty says. \u201cLater it was, like: \u2018I\u2019m Jack Whittaker. You\u2019ll do what I say . . . I have more money than God.\u2019 Who talks like that?
\n\u201cIt was like the money was eating away at whatever was good in him,\u201d Misty says. \u201cIt reminds me, like, \u2018Lord of the Rings,\u2019 how that little guy \u2014 what\u2019s his name? Gollum? \u2014 was with his Precious. It just consumes you. You become the money. You are no longer a person.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nJack had helped out a waitress named Brenda, whose life similarly unraveled when others discovered she had received some of the money:<\/p>\n
Heartsick, Brenda sold the house that Jack bought and moved away. \u201cI probably would have rejected the money in the first place if I\u2019d known then what I know now,\u201d she says. \u201cIt seems like money brings out the ugly in people<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The money also allowed Whittaker\u2019s granddaughter and several young people in her orbit to spin out of control on drugs, resulting in petty crimes, and two tragic deaths from overdose. One member of this circle, Josh Smith, got spooked by what was going on, and pulled away, noting that the effect of money on friendship was \u201cit turns it to hell\u201d:<\/p>\n